


As You Wish

by dum_e_art



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Princess Bride, idk what this is, juke, probably wont make sense if you havent seen the princess bride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-26 22:55:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30113307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dum_e_art/pseuds/dum_e_art
Summary: A quote from the Princess Bride is the final push for Julie and Luke to admit their feelings for each other.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 59





	As You Wish

It was eerily silent as Alex walked up to the garage, a light smile still lingering on his lips after spending time with Willie. He didn’t question it, despite letting a confused look wash over his face, maybe he’d actually get some peace and quiet for once.

  
  
  


He popped on his tiptoes for a second to look through the windows and see if anyone was inside; and there was Luke, lying with his face shoved between the couch cushions.

  
  
  


He slowly opened the door, trying not to be too loud, but he tripped on the coffee table on his way inside, startling Luke from his motionless position.

  
  
  


‘Hey buddy,’ Alex said, with a bit of hesitance in his voice.

  
  
  


Luke just made a *humph* sound and flopped back onto the couch.

  
  
  


Alex squeezed in the small space to the right of Luke and placed a comforting hand on his back, giving him a little pat before he let out a deep sigh.

  
  
  


‘What’s wrong man?’

  
  
  


‘Julie’s mad at me,’ he said in a whiney voice.

  
  
  


‘What’d you do this time?’ Alex responded in a teasing tone, hoping to lighten the mood, but just receiving a cold glare from the boy on the other end of the couch.

  
  
  


‘I-- sorry, but really, what happened?’

  
  
  


\- - -

  
  
  


_Half an hour earlier_

  
  
  


Julie walked into the studio at 4 o’clock sharp, shoulders slumped down with the weight of her backpack. She seemed in an iffy mood, but her face brightened instantly when she caught sight of Luke sitting on the edge of the piano, pick in his mouth and scribbling something down in his songbook.

  
  
  


‘Luke!’ she said a bit too loudly, startling him out of his reverie. Snapped out of his songwriting state, he dropped his pencil and made his way over to Julie. He took her backpack from her, setting it on the floor, and wrapped her in a warm hug.

  
  
  


She instantly melted into his touch, finally getting what she’d been missing all day.

  
  
  


‘Whatcha workin’ on?’ she mumbled, face burrowed in his chest, and vaguely gesturing in the direction where his notebook sat atop the piano.

  
  
  


‘Uhh, it’s nothing much, j-just a few lines that popped into my head,’ he said, loosening his grip around her waist, not-so-subtly trying to pull away from their embrace.

  
  
  


Julie scrunched up her nose as he walked back over and closed his notebook. She thought it weird he didn’t want her to see, considering they would go to each other with just a few words and try to make a song out of it. She brushed it off, not wanting to upset him and shuffled over to sit on the piano bench.

  
  
  


Luke walked around and sat down next to her, their arms pressed together as the bench was barely big enough for the two of them.

  
  
  


He slid his pencil behind his ear and opened his notebook to the next empty page. She glanced over and tried to read the marks on the back of the page before, but immediately felt like she was overstepping and her eyes wandered back down to her fidgeting hands.

  
  
  


‘Got anything for me, boss?’

  
  
  


_‘Here, in front of me, shining so much brighter than I have ever seen’_ played in the back of her mind, but he couldn’t know that.

  
  
  


‘I got nothing.’ That had been the only song in her head all day.

  
  
  


He looked over at her with curiosity, as she was obviously lying, but she never met his eyes. She didn’t even notice him look in her direction, as he began to get distracted in the way the light hit her. He guessed they had been sitting there longer than he thought, as the sun had just begun to set. The way the golden rays reflected off her curls, the way her glasses started to slide down her face before she pushed them up again. _‘God you’re beautiful,’_ Luke thought to himself, mesmerized by the constellations he connected in the light freckles across her nose.

  
  
  


She looked up at him with wide eyes, a blush creeping up her neck, as he realized he’d just said that out loud.

  
  
  


‘Oh shit,’ he breathed out, unable to think of a way to follow that up. He started to look back down at his lap when he saw Julie’s hand coming towards his face, closing his eyes as he honestly thought she was about to slap him. He felt her nails touch his skin as she gently brushed some hair out of his eyes.

  
  
  


‘You’re beautiful, too,’ his eyes fluttered open, following her hand up her arm and finally to her face, to see a light smile playing on her lips. He felt his cheeks heat up as his jaw quite literally dropped a little, a small gasp escaping his mouth before he could force himself to snap it shut.

  
  
  


They just stared into each other’s eyes for what felt like an eternity, when realization of what was happening came crashing down on Luke. His gaze snapped away from hers and he cleared his throat, abruptly standing up and taking a few steps around to the front of the piano. He noticed a slightly disappointed look on Julie’s face as he said, ‘Let’s get to work, shall we?’

  
  
  


She nodded her head with a small, ‘Yeah,’ before lifting the cover off the ivory keys she was oh so familiar with.

  
  
  


Luke stared off into space, randomly playing chords on his acoustic, as Julie looked down at her hands, wandering the keys to come up with something to accompany whatever Luke had been playing. She had stumbled over the notes a couple times, mindlessly humming to herself at the same time, but Luke didn’t seem to notice, too lost in thought it looked like.

  
  
  


Julie heavily dropped her hand, causing a loud discordant sound to ring throughout the room, causing them both to flinch at the sudden noise. Her head shot up and she noticed he had moved to the couch. She turned her head and her eyes immediately found him, his wandering her features before deciding to look over her shoulder to avoid any eye contact. She moved slightly to the side to meet his eyes, to which he responded with looking down at his hands, lightly tapping the wood of the body of his guitar.

  
  
  


She sighed and stood up, grabbing the pick he forgot in the rush to… get away from her? She walked over to the couch and handed it to him, which earned her a small nod as a silent thank you. She sat down next to him and noticed him slightly tense up, so she placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, which only made him tense up even more. She jerked her hand away and brought it to her other one, starting to fiddle with the ends of her sleeves, a nervous habit she seemed to have.

  
  
  


She found her gaze on him again quite quickly, seemingly out of her control. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, unsure how exactly to put what she was trying to say in words.

  
  
  


‘Luke..?’ He looked over at her hesitantly, and she noticed how on edge he seemed, able to see the nervousness in his eyes. ‘Are you okay?’ He nodded quickly, obviously trying to avoid the subject, but he knew she wouldn’t let it go so easily.

  
  
  


‘You know I like you,’ he nodded again, ‘I like you, too.’ She sighs, ‘No I mean-

  
  
  


_We say we’re friends_

_We play pretend_

_You’re more to me_

_We’re everything._ ’

  
  
  


He suddenly hears Julie singing, almost in a whisper, a few lyrics he’s never heard before.

  
  
  


‘What was that?’ It comes out so quiet he’s not sure she’s even able to hear it.

  
  
  


_‘Perfect harmony,’_ she sings in response. ‘A song I wrote,’ he’s shocked with the knowledge she wrote a song he didn’t already know about, ‘for you.’ His eyes widen and he looks over at her, to see she’s avoiding eye contact. He would, too, if he had just admitted he wrote a song about her (he’s definitely not thinking about how if she flipped just one page back in his songbook, she’d see it).

  
  
  


‘Julie, we can’t... you know that right?’

  
  
  


‘Why not?’ It comes off slightly aggressive.

  
  
  


‘I- I’m a ghost, you’re a lifer it just-- it can’t work, it won’t work.’

  
  
  


‘And what makes you so sure about that?’

  
  
  


‘We don’t know how long we’re gonna be here,’ his voice starts to shake and he curses his nerves, ‘a-and I don’t wanna hurt you more than you’re already hurting. You have a whole life ahead of you, you deserve to live it, whether or not I’m here for it. I’m not trying to take that away from you, I don’t wanna hold you back, you deserve to be happy.’

  
  
  


‘ _You_ make me happy!’ She almost shouts it, bursting up from the couch, turning to face him with tears brimming her eyes, and a lump forms in Luke’s throat as he sees her like that, realizing it’s him that made her like that.

  
  
  


‘No, no… but down the line, something will get in the way, something will go wrong, and you’ll end up regretting it, I’m not trying to hurt you like that.’

  
  
  


_How does he not get it?_ Julie thinks to herself.

  
  
  


She lets the tears fall and runs out of the studio, ignoring his calls after her.

  
  
  


\- - -

  
  
  


He finished recounting the interaction to Alex, who listened intently, taking in every detail so he could try and give the perfect response. He hadn’t interrupted at all and had yet to say anything, Luke was sitting expectantly awaiting a response, the silence torture in his always-active mind.

  
  
  


‘You’re an idiot.’

  
  
  


‘What?’

  
  
  


‘You’re an idiot, dude, did you not hear a word she said?’

  
  
  


‘Alex, are you not hearing a word _I’m_ saying? We can’t be together.’

  
  
  


‘But you love her.’

  
  
  


‘But I’m a ghost! And she’s a lifer! That’s a kind of relationship that shouldn’t be possible, it can only end with both of us getting hurt, with Julie getting hurt.’ He was always more focused on her feelings before anything else.

  
  
  


‘What does it matter if you love each other?’

  
  
  


‘She has a life to live,’ he repeats what he had told her not even an hour before, ‘I don’t wanna take that away from her, I’m not trying to mess that up for her, she deserves someone who can be there for her, she deserves better. That’s not me, I’m not better. I don’t deserve her.’

  
  
  


‘What was your favorite movie when we were kids?’

  
  
  


‘What? Alex, what does this have to do with anything I’m saying?’

  
  
  


‘What’s the name of the movie,’ it’s more of an order than a question at this point.

  
  
  


‘The Princess Bride?? I don’t see how--’

  
  
  


Alex quotes a line from the movie, his gaze burning through Luke’s skull as he tries to get to his point across.

  
  
  


\- - -

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: flynn

**_underachiever_ **💜: flynn

**_underachiever_ **💜: 911 help

  
  
  


**_disappointment_ **💚: girl whats up

**_disappointment_ **💚: is it luke

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: howd you know--

  
  
  


**_disappointment_ **💚: bc i know you jules

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: anyway yes apparently its mutual?? but he says it wont work bc hes a ghost and im a lifer what do i do??

**_underachiever_ **💜: and yes ik your stance on this situation but PLEASE im begging you, be on my side on this one.

  
  
  


**_disappointment_ **💚: what was that old movie from the 80s you loved when we were like 10??

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: flynn i know you dont like the idea either but is it really that bad?? youre just gonna change the subject like that?

  
  
  


**_disappointment_ **💚: no no theres a point to this i promise

**_disappointment_ **💚: now what was the movie?

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: the princess bride?? why?

  
  
  


**_disappointment_ **💚: right what was that one line you always thought was so sweet that i always thought was really dumb

**_disappointment_ **💚: something about death and love

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: flynn youre a genius

**_disappointment_ **💚: yeah i know

**_disappointment_ **💚: theyre technically old right theyve probably seen it

  
  
  


**_underachiever_ **💜: i sure hope so

  
  
  


\- - -

  
  
  


Alex lets out a sigh and shakes his head as he looks at his best friend, eyes wide with shock at the mention of a movie he hasn’t seen or talked about in decades. Luke’s seemingly unable to pick up his jaw and Alex takes it as a sign to continue.

  
  
  


‘Talk to her,’ he says insistently before poofing out.

  
  
  


Luke puts his head in his hands, elbows propped on his knees, thoughts flying through his head a mile a minute. He had always laughed at that line. He had always thought it was ridiculous. He never thought that could be something to actually apply to his (after)life.

  
  
  


(He was actually a lot like the kid in the movie the first time he watched it.

  
  
  


It first came out when he was nine, and his mom had just seen it with her book club (less of a book club, more of an excuse to brag about their kids, gossip, and drink wine).

  
  
  


Once it came out on VHS he remembers her coming home so excited, just like when she’d come home from the theater the first time she saw it, something they could watch together. He thought it looked really boring, and found himself silently agreeing to the offhand comments the boy was making. Grossed out with the romance, wanting to skip ahead to the Pit of Despair.

  
  
  


But like little Fred Savage, by the end he was enthralled, he had loved it and asked his mother to start it over to watch again. But it was late, and he had school in the morning, so she laughed and said, ‘Maybe tomorrow after you’ve done your homework.’

  
  
  


So the next day, after he had done his homework, he had his mom call up Alex and Reggie's parents (he would show Bobby when they met in middle school, still obsessed with the film years later) and he couldn’t help but drag them through the door to the couch, excited to show his best friends his new favorite movie. Reggie wouldn’t shut up about how pretty Princess Buttercup was, and Alex was hooked the second Westley appeared on the screen, which he would admit to the boys the first time they watched it after he came out in their freshman year of high school.

  
  
  


After he had gotten his friends almost as invested as he was, he begged his parents for the book the movie was based on for weeks on end. And the way his face lit up when he unwrapped it on his birthday, forgetting all the other gifts in front of him, would be something his parents would remember forever.

  
  
  


It was his favorite gift that year, and when he got sick and had to stay home from school, he shoved the book into his father’s hands and pulled a chair beside his bed, wanting nothing more than to be read his favorite story and pretend he was in the movie.

  
  
  


That was the last thing they had given him before they bought him his first guitar. And look how that turned out.)

  
  
  


He glances up for a second and catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the other side of the studio, almost shuddering. God, he’s a mess. He needs to talk to her.

  
  
  


He sits for a few seconds more and stands up, making his way towards the garage doors and just as he reaches for the handle (despite the fact that he could just poof out or walk through it), it flings open, revealing Julie, and he feels a pang of guilt in his chest, noticing her puffy cheeks and still red-rimmed eyes.

  
  
  


He sees her eyes fill with… shock, confusion almost, like she’s surprised he’s still here. He’d bet she can see his face flood with relief that he won’t have to go and search for her, she’s right here. She shoves past him, mumbling an apology as she bumps his shoulder, somehow still forgetting she won’t just pass through him.

  
  
  


Luke whips around to find her already on the couch, right where he was seated just moments before. He grabs a stool from over by his amp and sits down across from her on the other side of the coffee table.

  
  
  


‘We need to ta--’

  
  
  


‘I need to tell yo--’ they both begin, and stop just as quickly as they started. They both looked at each other with expectant eyes, letting out breathy laughs, realizing they were almost in sync. Luke gestures towards Julie in a ‘no, you go ahead’ type of way and she takes a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for wherever this conversation is about to go.

  
  
  


‘I need to tell you something,’ he nodded for her to continue. ‘After I left, I was texting Flynn, and remembered something that I think could change your mind,’ she sniffled and Luke opened his mouth as if to interrupt her _(to tell her his mind doesn’t need changing anymore)_ , but she holds up a hand and he immediately closes it.

  
  
  


‘There was this movie I watched all the time as a kid, one of my mom’s favorites, so it became one of mine,’ his face softens at the sentiment, ‘it’s from the 80s so you may have seen it. There’s this one line, when the couple in the movie find each other after being torn apart, and I always thought it was the sweetest thing in the world, expressing an inseparable bond between two people. ‘Death cannot stop true love--’

  
  
  


‘All it can do is delay it for a while,’ Luke cuts her off, finishing the quote. She looks up from the floor, not remembering when her gaze wandered there, and finds him staring at her with a look of wonder in his eyes. Both of them glassy-eyed, both of them letting out breaths they didn’t know they were holding. He stands up and holds out his hand to pull her up from the couch, quite literally jumping over the coffee table as he does so, pulling her into the warmest hug she’s ever felt.

  
  
  


She looks up at him, propping her chin on his chest, and sees something change in his face, eyes lighting up. He takes a hand off her back and holds up a finger saying, ‘Hold on just one second,’ dragging her with him because he forgot to let go. A sheepish smile spreads across his face as he does, and Julie can’t help but grin watching him basically skip over to the steps and hop up to the loft.

  
  
  


After digging between trash bags for a minute or so, Luke emerges holding up an old, denim backpack with a triumphant ‘aha!’ He poofs back to Julie and undoes the clasps, dropping to his knees and dumping everything onto the floor.

  
  
  


He spots it almost immediately, the book, one of the few things he shoved in his bag before he left. One of the few things he and his mom had bonded over. He picks it up and hugs it to his chest, before letting it fall gently on his lap, seeing a tear hit the cover before he even realizes he’s crying. Suddenly Julie’s beside him, he feels the pads of her thumbs press gently against his cheeks, and she’s wiping the tears he still couldn’t feel running down his face. She doesn’t know the story, but she can tell it means something to him.

  
  
  


‘My mom…’ he chokes back a sob. Julie wraps her arms around him, ‘You don’t have to-’ he shakes his head, ‘No, no I want to.’

  
  
  


‘It was one of the first movies we watched together,’ he traces his fingers over the faded gold lettering, ‘I showed it to the boys the next day, easily became one of our favorites of all time,’ he laughs as she wipes his cheeks again, reminiscing the days in the distant past.

  
  
  


‘Where are they right now?’

  
  
  


‘Alex is with Willie, and I think Reggie is checking out the bike shack his old house got turned into.’

  
  
  


‘Movie night when they get back?’ A bright smile instantly spreads across his face as soon as she suggested the idea, followed by an over exaggerated gasp. ‘What??’

  
  
  


‘We have to dress up as them.’

  
  
  


‘What, like me and you as Buttercup and Westley?’

  
  
  


‘Only if I can be Buttercup, the only way I’d be Westley is if you somehow got Nick to be Humperdinck,’ he said it like it was obvious.

  
  
  


‘I-- if you wanna borrow my dresses just say so.’

  
  
  


‘Really?? I’ve always liked that light blue one with the floral pattern.’

  
  
  


\- - -

  
  
  


Flynn, Carlos, and Ray join Julie and the guys for their movie night a few hours later. Julie is sitting on the couch with Luke and Flynn on either side of her, Alex and Reggie seated in front of them on the floor (she tried to urge them to take actual seats and be comfortable, but they insisted that they were all close together). Carlos sat in one of the two chairs that flanked the couch, Ray settling in the other, juggling mugs of hot chocolate for them all.

  
  
  


Ensuring everyone was cozy, all wrapped in their blankets, fingers curled around their mugs, Julie hit play on the movie. She almost got chills a few scenes in when Buttercup had asked Westley to fetch her a pitcher, and he did so reaching above her head without ever breaking their eye contact. It reminded her of just last week when Luke had reached around her to place his acoustic back on its stand, so close she could feel his breath against the side of her face.

  
  
  


When they reached the point where Buttercup was told that her beloved farm boy had died, it brought her back to the night of the Orpheum, when she thought she was going to lose the guys, and the nightmares she’d had following that night that she actually did.

  
  
  


(She distinctly remembers one night in particular, after a pretty intense dream that they had faded that night, when Luke poofed in to drop a sheet of lyrics on her desk for her to wake up to. He stopped short when he saw her sitting up on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest, shaking with tears running down her face.

  
  
  


He immediately ran over and wrapped her in a hug, whispering sweet nothings into her ear and thanking all the gods he didn’t believe in that he was now corporeal to her. He didn’t try to force anything out of her, just holding her until she was able to choke out what had happened, his grip only tightening around her as she found the words to tell him.

  
  
  


That was the night they both realized how difficult it was going to be to keep their feelings from each other. Luckily for them, they didn’t have to anymore.)

  
  
  


The image of Westley tumbling through the grass down the hill only for Buttercup to throw herself after him, brings back the memory of the night they met, when the guys fell out of thin air onto the rug where all their instruments now resided. And then--

  
  
  


_‘I told you I would always come for you, why didn’t you wait for me?’_

_‘Well, you were dead.’_

_‘Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.’_

_‘I will never doubt again.’_

_‘There will never be a need.’_

  
  
  


They snuck sideways glances at each other, looking down with light chuckles after their eyes met, blushes rising on both their cheeks. Julie only snuggled deeper into Luke’s side, Alex and Reggie watching them with a fond look in their eyes.

  
  
  


Julie thought about how similar their stories really were as she watched Westley demand Prince Humperdinck to drop his sword, thinking about how hard Luke must’ve fought against Caleb to get to her at the Orpheum, how weak he looked after the event, and how much stronger he was after they embraced for the first time.

  
  
  


As the film ended, Julie let out a yawn, barely keeping her eyes open. Noticing how tired she was, Luke set their empty mugs on the coffee table, scooped her up, and carried her to her room. Just as he had set her down on her bed, tucked her in, and turned to head towards the door, she sprang to a seated position and almost begged, ‘Stay with me?’

  
  
  


Luke raised an eyebrow, questioning her seemingly feigned drowsiness, sauntering back over to sit next to her, grabbing one of their many shared songbooks from the edge of her desk on his way. As he plopped down on her bed, Julie leaned over pressing a kiss to his cheek, and he felt warmth spread through his whole body, giddy with the thought that she finally knew how much he loved her. He hadn’t said it yet, neither of them had, but they both knew.

  
  
  


(He loved her from the moment he laid his eyes on her. When she waved a cross in his face, when she said he and the boys could stay in the studio. When he heard her sing for the first time, the voice of an angel, and every time after that he knew he loved her. When he gave her Bright in the middle of the kitchen, when they performed it together, when she made him feel alive again. When she rejoined the band on his birthday, when she hit that high note at the end of Finally Free, when she sang to him from the top of the piano performing Edge of Great, and when he sang it right back to her with his guitar. He’d loved her since day one, and he’d love her till the end of time.)

  
  
  


She opened the book to a fresh page and put pen to paper, sitting still for a second before lifting it back up, a dot of ink left where she was about to start writing. She stared at the blank page, closing the notebook a moment later, setting it on her nightstand and turning so she was facing Luke.

  
  
  


He looked confused, thinking she wanted to stay up and write, but his face softened and he let out a sigh of content as she gently took his hands in her own. He got lost in her eyes and only noticed her lips were moving after several minutes had already passed.

  
  
  


‘Luke…? Luke are you even listening to me?’

  
  
  


‘Hm? Sorry I-- I got distracted, could you say that again?’

  
  
  


‘Did you hear a word I said?’

  
  
  


‘How do you expect me to stay focused when a wicked beauty is sitting right in front of me?’ She blushed at the compliment and squeezed his hands a little. ‘Lost in my eyes I presume?’ She continued before he had the chance to respond. ‘Don’t worry, I get lost in yours, too,’ she said as a light smile spread across her face. Luke stared into the deep brown of her eyes, and she into the sea glass green of his before they lit up with the look he got only when he was talking about music, or her (though those two things were quite intertwined at this point).

  
  
  


He reached around her to grab the notebook she’d set aside before, scribbling a few lines before turning it towards her, trying to gauge her thoughts on it before she actually voiced them. She snatched the pen out of his hand, crossing out a few things and adding a couple more, turning it back to him. Knowing it would be even better now that she’d had some input, he read it over again with a bright smile, a melody already forming in his head. 

  
  
  


\- - -

  
  
  


They write for hours, and Luke can tell Julie’s getting genuinely tired. Repeating the events from earlier, he takes the notebook from her as her writing continues to slow, and places it back on the edge of her desk, tucking her in once again. As he turns to walk away and head back to the studio, Julie grabs his hand and he turns back towards her, flushing slightly at the contact.

  
  
  


‘Stay?’ she asks for the second time that night.

  
  
  


He lays back down, wrapping his arms around her waist, her face nuzzled in the crook of his neck.

  
  
  


‘As you wish.’

  
  
  
  
  


_(“That day she was amazed to discover that when he was saying ‘as you wish’, what he meant was ‘I love you.’”)_

**Author's Note:**

> hihi this was based on a tumblr post i saw a while ago, i can't find it anymore but it was just something along the lines of "death cannot stop true love all it can do is delay it for a while. can y'all see alex quoting this to luke ab julie bc i can and i need a fic ab it"
> 
> this is my first fic and also the longest thing i've ever written so like don't judge me too hard lmaoaoaoo


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